Friday, May 31, 2013

Jim Rogers Endorses Key Localist Concept

How do you stop government and the banks associated with it from gaining more and more power over time? According to the philosophy of government called Localism, one of the most important things you can do to insure that is to separate money from government. That is, government is not permitted to mint its own coin, or issue its own currency, or make any coin or currency issued by a private entity a legal tender. Nor is it permitted to use the tax code to discriminate among brands of private money which are of silver, gold, or other metals of intrinsic value. In a localist view of money, government's role is limited to making sure contracts are enforced. That is, when a private mint says that a certain type of coin contains one ounce of .999 pure palladium, then the government is there to protect against fraud should the mint try to alter the content of those coins or unauthorized (by the private mint) persons attempt to make fakes.

It now appears that investment guru Jim Rogers sees things in a very similar way. This article on Zero Hedge contains numerous Jim Roger's quotes about money which demonstrates that Rogers takes a very similar view of things, if not from the perspective of limiting government power, at least from the perspective of keeping money sound. Only a functioning free market in money can guarantee sound money, not government promises.

Here is a key question and answer:

FM: You have become very favourable towards competing currencies as a solution to the crisis of fiat money.

JR: That’s the only solution that has ever worked long term. Nothing has worked a long time – including gold, silver, seashells, cattle. Nothing has worked long term except that you choose your money.

That is what Localists say. Only you being able to choose your own money will keep money sound, and only you choosing your own government will keep government sound. No paper promises about how a central government is going to protect your rights will protect your rights. Rather, guaranteeing the ability to leave the jurisdiction of a government which is not to your liking to one that is more to your liking will protect your rights. And the more localized government power is, the lower the transaction costs of escaping bad government is, this forcing government into the disciplining power of the marketplace.

Centralizing control over money takes it out of the hands of individual choice and makes it harder to escape bad money. Centralizing government power takes it out of the hands of individual choice and makes it harder to escape bad government.